Tag Archives | paternity

Scientists have created mice that are the genetic product of two fathers, the latest in a series of unusual experiments in mammalian reproduction.

Researchers at University of Texas MD. Anderson Cancer Center and elsewhere first engineered a female mouse whose eggs contained the DNA from a male. When the female was mated with another male, the offspring had genetic contributions entirely from two males. The study appears online in the peer-reviewed journal Biology of Reproduction.

While the achievement is technically intriguing, its practical benefits are far from clear. Any move to try the same experiment in people is certain to be more complicated and controversial.

The study describes the technique as “a new form of mammalian reproduction: that could potentially be used to improve livestock breeds or preserve endangered species. more provocatively, the authors argue that if certain technical hurdles can be overcome, “then some day two men could produce their own genetic sons and daughters.” But those technical hurdles are extremely high.

Sometimes it’s better not to poke into your genetic history. The U.K.’s Sun has the scoop on a 41-year-old radio D.J. from Los Angeles who decided to investigate and discovered that Charles Manson is his biological father.

Matthew Roberts had been adopted at birth; twelve years ago, he did the research necessary to locate his birth mother, Terry, in Wisconsin. She finally revealed that she had traveled across the bus with Manson’s “Family” in 1968 and been raped and impregnated by him during a drug-fueled orgy.

Roberts realized that he has Manson’s large forehead and “thick, arched eyebrows and long, thick, dark hair.” He also may have inherited his father’s schizophrenia. The two are now in contact, and Manson mails Roberts “weird stuff and always signs it with his swastika.”